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April 2017

Gizmoe

This is the second edition of Gizmoe in 2017.

Gizmoe will also be posted on www.seniornet.co.nz from 30th April 2017.

It’s been very busy six weeks since the last edition of Gizmoe with seven well attended regional

meetings being held throughout the country. Strong and meaningful discussions about “The Way

Forward” for the SeniorNet organisation in New Zealand being the main theme of the meetings. The

enthusiasm for the organisation to succeed in an environment without government funding was

heartening. Having attended each session it would be fair to say that there is general consensus to

adopt the suggestions contained in “The Way Forward” paper sent to all Learning Centres at the

begining of the year. For sure there will be more works to be done in respect to the

Federation/Learning centre agreement.

Click here to read “The way Forward Document”:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxciyxun6hr7ucq/SeniorNet%20The%20way%20forward..doc?dl=0

There’s been some fairly big events happen in just the past two weeks. Okay…. the news, or lack of

it, is still dominated by Mr T from the US….. yay, but from a technology aspect the big news is;

Microsoft Windows has been knocked off its perch as the most preferred operating system in the

world and here in New Zealand Spark has announced the phasing out of the traditional telephone

exchange switching system in preference to an all internet based facility. Boring you say? Well

maybe, but in the history of technology both are pretty big! You will find a couple of articles about it

in this edition.

Remember to participate in the short survey in this edition. It’s a fact-finding exercise to shape a

potential new facility to safeguard our final wishes, be quick as the survey closes 30th April. Oh and

there are prizes to be won for participating!

Best wishes and remember – Learn Something New Every day!

Grant Sidaway – Executive Officer SeniorNet Federation

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What happens when I die?

Simplifying your final affairs, or that of a loved one’s, can be a major

headache, as well as heartbreak for all concerned.

A team has recently formed and is participating in the Government

sponsored R9 Accelerator 3+ programme to lessen the

administrative burden.

SeniorNet members have been given the opportunity to contribute

to their research on how personal information is currently stored

and shared.

This survey takes only TWO MINUTES it’s your chance to share your

thoughts.

Be quick as the survey closes 30 April 2017! WIN A $25 PREZZY CARD.

Here is the link to the survey:

https://docs.google.com/a/noticematch.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdq2-

iK7pQpYMk3kmdEK9ypazFTsivznpQ7V2OOq9F7fJReeA/viewform

Role-over TradeMe there’s a new kid on the block!

Ads4All offers a quick and easy way for all Kiwis, including

SeniorNet members, to place classified adverts plus optional

photos online, without having to use auction sites or pay

large fees.

In fact, during this start-up period, all adverts are free. After

that, all Community related adverts will continue to be so, while Private and Business related ones

will be much more affordable than for TradeMe or eBay. Despite that, Ads4All matches TradeMe

both in the depth and extent of categories and in geographic locations across New Zealand.

Have a browse www.ads4all.co.nz . You’ll see categories for items, jobs, services, courses and

community notices.

To place adverts, you must first register. With a private registration, you can place adverts for

yourself or family members. If you are a business representative, you can register as that as well.

Similarly, for community related registration, which includes voluntary, charity or community

interest groups, ideal for SeniorNet and its branches.

Any advert you publish, you’ll have the option of editing or updating it later. That includes adding or

replacing photos, of which you can have up to 6, although property-related adverts can include up to

12. If you need to view and/or edit any of your photos before uploading them, a good, free photo-

editing program is Paint.NET.

The instructions for using Ads4All are easy to follow.

To help grow Ads4All - apart from placing plenty of good adverts - please pass the word on to your

friends and neighbours.

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A terrific home phone and internet offer from Vodafone

Vodafone’s best value Home Phone bundle, just $39.99 per month

Exclusively for seniors:

Vodafone’s best value Home Phone bundle, just $39.99 per month.

With this 12-month term, you’ll get:

• Free twin cordless phones

• Free calls to national landlines

• 20GB Internet data for browsing your favourite sites

• Free modem ($14.95 P&H applies)

Bring your existing phone number with you.

Click the banner below or visit www.vodafone.co.nz/seniors for more detail.

Call 0800 533 018 to sign up today.

Offer ends 31/07/17.

Unavailable with other offers. Select areas only (rural areas specifically excluded). Sufficient 4G

coverage & capacity required. 4G available where 94% of Kiwi’s live and work. Ask us to check your

address. Modem must only be used at location nominated. Early termination fee applies. Up to 2 hrs

per call. Price includes 99c telecommunications levy. Terms: vodafone.co.nz/home-wireless-

broadband

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Star Trek style Tricorders set to beam our way

Fifty years ago, the Star Trek television series showcased a handheld medical device that could diagnose every ailment with just a swipe over the patient’s body. Called the tricorder, it was just one of the show’s futuristic gadgets. What seemed impossible at the time is now closer to reality.

Scientists have spent years working to bring it to existence. The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, a competition launched in 2012 which offers $10M to the winner is providing the incentive. With over 300 teams at the outset, just two are now in the running.

Like all competitions there are rules: Each prototype must have the capacity to monitor five vital signs and diagnose medical conditions, send data to the internet, and weigh under 2.5 kilograms.

Don’t expect the gadget to be like Dr McCoy’s. The real-life current versions aren’t no-touch wands but rather what look like iPads with accompanying sensors. It’s also intended for a different user: Not a doctor, but rather the patient him or herself. The Tricorder, allow individuals to combine health knowledge and decision-making into their daily lives.

One goal of the competition is to raise the possibility of more precise diagnoses. Dr. Andrew Ahn, DBG’s lead medical advisor, suggested that the use of dynamic biomarkers — ongoing readings of vital functions — could improve medical treatment.

At the moment, medicine is based on one-time readings. The science of medicine in the future could mean doctors could work with ongoing/continuous data. The way that a vital sign changes over a period of minutes or hours can be more meaningful than individual readings taken weeks or months apart.

So a quick swipe over your body could become part of your daily cleanliness, with data collected it is then sent directly for analysis then onward to the physician of your choice for review, advice and action if required. The question remains, will we be treated for aliments remotely?

Apparently “beam me up Scotty” is still some way off as its being held-up by IFATCA (International

Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations)

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Never too old to learn On the 25th of March, our oldest member William Turner celebrated his 100th birthday. He is known to everyone as “Bill”. Bill joined SeniorNet Mac Christchurch at the age of 88 and is in very good health. He lives by himself in a two storey house, and keeps a immaculate vegetable & flower garden which he tends every day with occasional help. I have visited Bill many times and it is common to find him in the garden in his shorts attending to his plants. Bill still has a drivers licence. Bill was Chief Pharmartist most of his life and spent one stint of 12 years serving in the Government hospital in Samoa. On the 24th, Barbara Blowes our President, presented Bill with a SeniorNet Mac Life Membership Certificate along with some goodies. The presentation was made in Bill’s flowers garden. Computer wise, Bill has used Macintosh computers since the early1970’s He also is an avid genealogist, and has produced vast records of all his families using his iMac.

Article submitted by: Allan Rutherford SeniorNet Mac Christchurch

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A salute to a technology visionary

Not many of us will know of Robert Taylor. Robert was one of life’s quiet achievers, behind the

scenes, inquisitive researcher that made things happen. Sadly, he died on 13th April at the age of 85.

Much of his life was spent in the technology world, we have a lot to thank Robert Taylor for.

Taylor was not an inventor, but as a researcher at American federal

agencies and private research centres. He had a flair for finding the

right people and ideas to make the digital revolution possible.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he had a direct effect on the invention of the

computer mouse, the personal computer and the Internet itself. Often

the inventors get all the praise, not that they shouldn’t be

congratulated, but equally so the ideas people should share in the

limelight. It's just as rare to have that talent too.

He had never been recognised in public by anyone outside the computer industry. But from his early

days as a research manager at Nasa, he had an in-built sense that computers could be used as

communications devices, not just merely as “high-powered adding machines”.

In 1961, Taylor provided funding through Nasa to a California researcher, Douglas Engelbart, who

invented the computer mouse, which of course set the scene for the “point click and go” world we

live in today.

In 1968, Taylor co-wrote a paper, "The Computer as a Communication Device", that proposed the

radical idea that ordinary people would someday communicate directly through their computers.

"In a few years," he wrote, "men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine

than face to face".

He predicted that users would take out subscriptions for information services and would form

"communities" in cyberspace. Email and other forms of online interaction "will be as natural an

extension of individual work as face-to-face communication is now".

By 1969, researchers under Taylor's guidance had developed ARPAnet, a system recognised as a

forerunner of today’s modern Internet.

Inventors in his lab built the Alto, one of the first personal computers, complete with file-sharing

systems and an early word-processing system that remarkably allowed users to cut and paste blocks

of text. They also invented the first laser printer. In addition, he helped develop AltaVista, an early

internet search engine and forerunner to the now dominate search engine Google.

We have a lot to thank Robert Taylor for, whilst not the hands-on inventor, he certainly played a

huge role in his research, vision and encouragement of those who we more readily acknowledge as

the fathers of technology.

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Making the switch

For many the acronym PSTN is just another meaningless term. It could be the text shortcut for

Position or if you are a horticulturist Pesticide Safety Team Network, but if you have spent a working

life in the telecommunications industry you would know PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone

Network. This network is a combination of cables and wires that connect customers to switching

points, generally called telephone exchanges that make the connection of your phone to whoever

you are calling, be-it locally, nationally, internationally or to mobile phones. It’s a clever system that

has served us well since 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Spark New Zealand Ltd, the

company that owns and manages

the PSTN in New Zealand recently

announced it will phase out the old

network over the next five years in

favour of an internet-based phone

system that it says will allow

people to do more with their

phones.

The sound quality of calls will

improve with the switch to what

Spark is calling its converged communications network (CCN). They intend making a start next year

and it is planned to take five years to complete the move.

However, there will be some downsides you should be aware of.

While there would be no need for people to replace their home phones, a small number of older

security and medical alarms and switchboards would not work after the switch.

People would also no longer be able to rely on older corded phones working for lengthy periods

during a power cut, meaning it would be even more important for people to ensure they had a

battery back-up for their mobiles in emergency situations.

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Microsoft lost its “Edge”

It’s been in the wings for a while, 2016 was the year that the iconic Microsoft Internet Explorer

ceased to be the most popular way for people to browse the web on desktops devices.

2017 has heralded a new browser king in the form of Google Chrome.

As of December 2016, Google Chrome is the world's most popular browser.

The shift has been dramatic as seen on the chart below which represents the March 2017 situation.

Reality is that the IE brand was abandoned in 2015 when Microsoft declared it was working on new

software, which turned out to be Microsoft Edge. At the end of 2015, 46 per cent of web users were

using IE, which built on 20 years of history from loyal users as their favoured desktop browser. But

now, even though the software is still working and receives security updates, that number has fallen

to less than 20%.

Sadly, for Microsoft those escaping IE have not turned to Edge, which is only available on Windows

10. Microsoft's new browser started 2016 with 2.8% of web users, with now just 5.3%, giving

Microsoft around a quarter of the market between its two offerings. A far cry from 10 years ago

when IE enjoyed 68% share followed by Firefox with 25% who have also seen their share halved in

10 years.

Safari, which is only available on Macs, sat at less than five per cent in January 2016 but was down to

3.5 per cent by December. This leaves around three per cent of people using smaller browsers like

Opera, Vivaldi and Brave.

Chrome's dominance also crosses over to the mobile and tablet space, it is currently used by more

than half of all mobile web users. Safari, the default iPhone browser, follows at around 30%.

As well as being available on the most devices, Chrome excels at security and compatibility, so for

now Chrome is the “shiny boy” of browsers. Can the existing alternatives take the sparkle out of

Chrome or will a new player emerge?

And there’s more…….. For the first time in modern computing history Microsoft has been knocked of

the perch as being the most preferred operating system in the world – only by a smidgen, with

Android having 37.93% followed by Microsoft 37.91% then iOS at 13.09%.